Hungary’s central bank rate-setters left the base rate unchanged at 2.1% at their regular rate-setting meeting on Tuesday. The decision was in line with market expectations. After the previous rate-setting meeting on July 22, when the base rate was reduced from 2.3% to the current level, the Council said it had wound up an easing cycle started almost two years earlier.

The MNB’s monetary council met analysts’ expectations yesterday by lowering the base rate from 2.5% to an all-time low of 2.4%. The rate cut was supported by the low inflation of around 0% and the strengthening forint, observed analyst Ákos Horváth of brokerage Equilor.

Hungary’s central bank has room to manoeuvre on rates and there is a possibility of further small cuts, central bank governor György Matolcsy said on Thursday. He told a business event in London that the central bank’s monetary easing cycle started from a 7% base rate and it is currently at 2.5%.

On May 25 Hungary will hold its election for the European Parliament. The government party opted to hold the national election on April 6 and a separate EP election seven weeks later. There was nothing that would have prevented the authorities from holding both elections on May 25, but such an arrangement wasn’t deemed advantageous to the governing party.

Conflicts with Brussels, utility cost cuts, symbolic debates. Just about every conflict of the past four years Viktor Orbán's administration went into was because of sovereignty and the shaping of a new framework for its interpretation. When did the cabinet have to retreat and when did the EU acknowledge that the rebellious Hungarian government was right?

Although the Monetary Council has theoretical room to further cut the base rate, given the global environment and investor sentiment, another rate cut could now increase risks exponentially, rate-setter Gyula Pleschinger said in an interview to commercial Gazdasági Rádió on Friday.

Hungary’s central bank remains biased to ease its monetary policy further, as gradual forint depreciation is seen as net positive for growth in Hungary, London-based emerging markets economists at JP Morgan said in a report highlighting key findings of a recent trip to Budapest. A 10% forint depreciation boosted exports by 2%, notwithstanding the 80% imported content of exports, they said.

Hungary’s central bank is likely to shift to lower gear in its easing cycle, potentially voting for a token rate cut of only 5 basis points, on the back of a weaker forint, London-based emerging markets economists said ahead of the Monetary Policy Council’s (MPC) Tuesday meeting.

Hungary’s central bank rate-setters left the base rate unchanged at 2.1% at their regular rate-setting meeting on Tuesday. The decision was in line with market expectations. After the previous rate-setting meeting on July 22, when the base rate was reduced from 2.3% to the current level, the Council said it had wound up an easing cycle started almost two years earlier.

The MNB’s monetary council met analysts’ expectations yesterday by lowering the base rate from 2.5% to an all-time low of 2.4%. The rate cut was supported by the low inflation of around 0% and the strengthening forint, observed analyst Ákos Horváth of brokerage Equilor.

Hungary’s central bank has room to manoeuvre on rates and there is a possibility of further small cuts, central bank governor György Matolcsy said on Thursday. He told a business event in London that the central bank’s monetary easing cycle started from a 7% base rate and it is currently at 2.5%.

On May 25 Hungary will hold its election for the European Parliament. The government party opted to hold the national election on April 6 and a separate EP election seven weeks later. There was nothing that would have prevented the authorities from holding both elections on May 25, but such an arrangement wasn’t deemed advantageous to the governing party.

Conflicts with Brussels, utility cost cuts, symbolic debates. Just about every conflict of the past four years Viktor Orbán's administration went into was because of sovereignty and the shaping of a new framework for its interpretation. When did the cabinet have to retreat and when did the EU acknowledge that the rebellious Hungarian government was right?

Although the Monetary Council has theoretical room to further cut the base rate, given the global environment and investor sentiment, another rate cut could now increase risks exponentially, rate-setter Gyula Pleschinger said in an interview to commercial Gazdasági Rádió on Friday.

Hungary’s central bank remains biased to ease its monetary policy further, as gradual forint depreciation is seen as net positive for growth in Hungary, London-based emerging markets economists at JP Morgan said in a report highlighting key findings of a recent trip to Budapest. A 10% forint depreciation boosted exports by 2%, notwithstanding the 80% imported content of exports, they said.

Hungary’s central bank is likely to shift to lower gear in its easing cycle, potentially voting for a token rate cut of only 5 basis points, on the back of a weaker forint, London-based emerging markets economists said ahead of the Monetary Policy Council’s (MPC) Tuesday meeting.

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